Seminar on Addictive Disorders: An Exploration of Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior

The Collision of the Adoption and Safe Families Act and Substance Abuse: Research-Based Education and Training Priorities for Child Welfare Professionals

“…Advanced-year students reported fewer negative experiences Schroeder, Lemieux,and Pogue 235 with clients with substance abuse problems at their field placements, and they ruled out substance abuse among clients and were less likely to miss opportunities to intervene with persons with substance abuse problems. Lemieux and Schroeder's (2004) findings are inconsistent with previous research demonstrating negative student attitudes and indifference toward clients with alcohol problems; however, a more rigorous design is necessary in order to make inferences about the specific outcomes of this module-based training approach. In sum, findings from recent studies of substance abuse training of social work students, in general, suggest that such training may influence students' knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practice behaviors.…”

“…The available literature, however, does provide some information about how the broader social work curriculum prepares students to work with persons affected by substance abuse. Although there is evidence to suggest that some schools are addressing the problem of fragmented training of social work students, MSW programs have long been criticized for graduating social work students who have been insufficiently trained to identify and intervene with persons who are substance abusers (Lemieux & Schroeder, 2004;Tracy & Farkas, 1994;van Wormer, 1987). Research examining the impact of specialized substance abuse training in social work education conducted prior to the 1990s focused exclusively on alcoholism and it produced somewhat mixed results, largely due to methodological weaknesses in research design.…”

“…Gassman et al's study has many strengths; however, because of its rigorous methodology, it is not possible to distill the specific AOD content areas that precipitated changes in students' practice behaviors. More recently, Lemieux and Schroeder (2004) implemented a module-based training on addictive disorders that included measures of knowledge, attitudes, and practice behaviors with 46 foundation-and 78 advanced-year students. The Seminar on Addictive Disorders consists of one basic and three elective training modules which teach students how to identify, assess, and intervene with persons with addictive disorders in diverse practice settings.…”

“…The Seminar on Addictive Disorders consists of one basic and three elective training modules which teach students how to identify, assess, and intervene with persons with addictive disorders in diverse practice settings. The basic seminar reviews theories of addiction, and three elective seminars address treatment issues, family dynamics and eating disorders, and pathological gambling (Lemieux & Schroeder, 2004). Pretest-posttest results indicated that foundation-year students increased their knowledge of theories of addiction and both foundationand advanced-year students increased their knowledge of treatment approaches.…”

“…The research to date, however, provides no empirical evidence of the extent to which substance abuse training specifically prepares child welfare professionals to work with families affected by substance abuse. In terms of the delivery of substance abuse content, it is not clear whether a module-based approach, as undertaken by Lemieux and Schroeder (2004), is more or less effective than infusing substance abuse content into existing courses. There also is some evidence to suggest that learning outcomes are not compromised when interactive television is used as a mode of course delivery (Hollister & McGee, 2000).…”